On Practicing Yoga and Yoga Abstinence, Understanding Why Your Monkey Shouldn’t Get His Way

I notice when I drag myself to yoga class -- yes sometimes it is really like pulling the dead weight of my body -- I am always happy I went. In fact, I’m always happy right when I arrive. The vibe is very pleasant, the lighting is almost always nice (barring the strange yoga class I once attended at a YMCA gymnasium! Eeek! I won’t even start on the horrible acoustics), Arriving to yoga class always has me looking forward to the stretches and challenges yoga postures bring about for me. Even when I practice at home, I still get put into a calm state when going through the motions and breathing with yoga asana.

On the flip side, the side that has been most typical as of the last year, I will abstain from going or practicing solo. This phenomenon is also known as: “make up various excuses as to why now is not a good time to go.” Its true yoga schedules may not be ideally tailored to the rest of our lives’ schedules, but c’mon out of 7 days in a week I can make up excuses for all of them? Yes! I can! If you need an excuse-maker, well…nevermind. Let’s face it, we can all get really good at making excuses, finding reasons for anything, and telling stories. However, I’m not going to beat myself or you (yes you) up over this. That’s just what the human mind does. Ironically, yoga practice slows down the pace of your mind so you don’t pay so much attention to all that jabbering story all the time and you wind up with more peace overall.

You may be tempted at this point to argue that you really value your mind and its great powers. I’m not here saying the mind is useless. Sure the mind does you some good, but I’d argue it’s more trouble overall for most people. That is, unless you know how to tame its monkey ways. “Monkey mind” is the term meditation practitioners use to describe how the mind jumps from thought to thought. Like a monkey swinging in the trees…branch to branch, just gliding along, then other times bouncing around. The awesomeness of consciousness comes into play when you can learn how to respond appropriately to your monkey swings and also tame your monkey to go sit in the corner while you collect yourself. By the way, this is all still an imaginary monkey I’m using as a metaphor for the uncontrollable thoughts in your head…there’s not really a monkey in your head. Ok, you knew that.

Alas, I think the real problem is it’s my monkey trying to trick me into not practicing yoga. They monkey wants to stay and play, swing around, jump, frolic, flail, and screech for attention. Yoga practice works to tame the monkey, to quiet the mind. When the monkey makes up excuses to not practice, he’s really just preserving his playground. Poor monkey. But see here’s the best part! The monkey isn’t REAL so you don’t have to feel bad for him. When put this way, seems like an easy choice to tell your monkey to give it a rest and go grab some peace and expanded consciousness like your life depends on it. By the way, this principle can be applied to anything (like yoga) that brings you peace and stillness.